Hernando: News and notes

By IZZY GOULD and DAVID MURPHY, Times Staff Writers
Published January 25, 2008

Sharks, interrupted

There's no doubt Nature Coast has benefited from playing a loaded conference schedule, including two holiday tournaments in which it lost a combined five of six games. Because of that slate, the Sharks now have a 16-day layoff before the start of the Class 4A, District 8 girls basketball tournament.

District play officially concluded Friday, but most teams are playing non-conference games this week. Nature Coast, however, has used all of its allotted non-conference games. Because the Florida High School Athletic Association requires that teams play no more than 25 games in the regular season, the Sharks are forced to sit.

When asked if he liked the layoff, coach Travis Lamle first said, "kind of."

Then he changed his answer to, "not really."

Not that Nature Coast has much to worry about: The Sharks haven't lost a district game in the past two seasons and figure to have an easy run to the 4A-8 championship. Still ...

"We get to fix a lot of stuff," said Lamle, whose team is 7-0 since the winter break. "But I'd like to have at least one game in there."

No more soccer

At one point during Central's 2-0 loss to River Ridge in the Class 5A, District 7 boys soccer semifinals, Bears coach Hank Deslaurier turned to an assistant coach and said, "We're lucky they can't shoot, or we'd be down 4-0."

The Bears eventually evened things out, but met their demise in the form of two second-half goals. It brought a disappointing end to its best season since 2002 and ran its playoff-less streak to six years.

"River Ridge outplayed us," Deslaurier said. "There's nothing more to say."

The Bears were the last county soccer team alive. Springstead's boys and girls teams, both of whom qualified for the playoffs last season, both lost in their respective district tournaments, as did soccer squads from Hernando and Nature Coast.

Stretch run for scoring race

Central guard Darryn Frazier has scored at least 24 points in five of his past six games, giving him a large lead in the race to become the North Suncoast's scoring champion. But Hudson guard Jarrod Branco is within striking distance, thanks to a 23-point performance in a loss to Pasco last week. Frazier, who is averaging 23.7 points per game, leads Branco 23.3 points per game by 32 points. Both players have four games remaining, meaning Branco would have to average eight points more per game the rest of the season to catch Frazier.

Branco has scored at least 30 five times this season, including two 40-point games. Frazier has four 30-point games, and his single-game high is 39 against Crystal River on Dec. 18.

Contact us

Izzy Gould can be reached at izzygould@gmail.com or (813) 909-4612. David Murphy can be reached at dmurphy@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1407.

[Last modified January 24, 2008, 20:35:30]